26 January - Bexley council sends in the fuzz
Lesnes
Abbey Conservatives poked their latest newssheet through my letterbox today. It doesn’t
really say much, full of trite platitudes which steer a careful
non-controversial course
designed not to upset too many people and try to convince us that Conservatives spend our money
more wisely than the last administration - which shouldn’t have been too be difficult.
Naturally it glosses over the fact that Bexley’s taxes have still been rising faster than elsewhere in London.
One bit did catch my eye however and that is that the big-spending Tories have thrown money at the
Metropolitan Police so they can go around spying on the populace where no fixed C.C.T.V. cameras operate.
Presumably that explains why a police van was parked outside my house for much of the afternoon of 7th
January. It was marked with the words ‘Police C.C.T.V.’ and that it was working for Bexley
council. Goodness knows what they were expecting to find. It parked at the end of a
cul-de-sac where
nothing happens all day long once the postman has come and gone and being a
cul-de-sac there are few homes to be looked at.
The only trouble we ever see is the occasional yob who takes a short cut
across a neighbour’s garden, hops the fence and sometimes damages it in the process. It makes
the journey to Abbey Wood station a bit shorter. However my neighbour already has the fence under 24/7
C.C.T.V. recording so if the police were taking an interest it was a bit of a waste of time and money.
And surely there must be higher priorities for the police than parking in a quiet
cul-de-sac looking out for a minor misdemeanour that might happen twice a week or less?
You can see the police snoopercam above the driver’s position. At one time there were two vans,
even just one of them being enough to totally block access to the drives and parking spaces of nine
dwellings. But when did the police or Bexley council ever care about legal niceties?